There was a time when Mike Vickerson was like most people and did not even know what a Himalayan thar is. Now he’s familiar with the goatlike animal, inside and out.

A client recently sent a thar — and a wallaby and chamois — to Vickerson, the proprietor of Adirondack Wildlife Studio in Pine Lake and an award-winning taxidermist with a growing reputation. The customer wants full-body mounts.

Vickerson started out in Pine Lake in 1985 working with familiar local game animals: deer, bear and fish. Now, he derives 20 percent of his business from clients on safaris around the world. This month, he is awaiting shipment of trophies from two African outings.

Vickerson said he finds the exotic projects, many of which require considerable research, exciting and interesting. But, he said, “you live on your locals.”

Those locals are the customers who each year bring him the deer, bears, assorted fish and turkeys. A deer mount costs $460 without a back panel and $490 with one. He turns out 65 to 75 a year.

Skilled artist

Vickerson, ranked a master by his professional association, must know what he is doing. He has twice won the blue ribbon at the annual United Taxidermists of New York competition for deer mounts. He also won twice for brook trout mounts, and one of those placed second nationally.

To the untrained observer, Vickerson’s wild turkey mounts look like they could start walking at any moment. He, however, is not totally sold, pointing out that every feather has to be perfect. A turkey, with all its feathers and delicate features, is time consuming. It will cost $650.

Every good taxidermist has to be half artist and half surgeon. To be celebrated for work on birds, Vickerson says, it doesn’t hurt to be part hairdresser too.

“I don’t feel I do a real bang-up job on them,” he said of birds. That is probably just the artist in him talking. Outdoor writer Ron Kolodziej trusted Vickerson to mount all six turkeys that make up his rare “World Slam.”

“I’m quite satisfied with them,” Kolodziej said of his turkeys, two species of which he took in Mexico. “Mike is very competent and very honest..............Read The Full Article